A chapter of France's recent history is on trial in the Palace of Justice these days, unfolding like a Zola epic, with wealth, privilege, careerism and corruption. On some days dozens of people line up at the courtroom door vying for a seat in the...

The former president of the old state-owned oil company, Elf Aquitaine, turned himself in to the authorities after an appeals court in Paris upheld his conviction and a 30-month jail sentence for corruption. An arrest warrant had been issued for...

A French court today overturned the corruption conviction of Roland Dumas, a former foreign minister, provoking cries of a judicial double standard. Mr. Dumas, 80, silver-haired and sharp-tongued, had been sentenced in May 2001 to six months in...

Former Foreign Minister Roland Dumas began an appeal against his conviction in a corruption scandal. Mr. Dumas, 80, was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $130,000 in May 2001 for taking illegal gifts from his mistress, Christine...

Former Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, who was sentenced to jail earlier this year for his part in a government corruption scandal, has been placed under investigation again, this time over the contested sale of some Alberto Giacometti sculptures....

September 7, 2001, Friday

Three weeks after being convicted on corruption charges, Roland Dumas, a former foreign minister, has lashed out at two ministers in France's governing Socialist Party, saying that both were well aware of the illicit use of funds at the Elf Aquitaine...

A Paris court sentenced the flamboyant former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, to six months in jail today and also convicted four co-defendants in a huge corruption case that has shaken France's political establishment and transfixed the public with...

The corruption trial of a former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, his former mistress and five other defendants ended today, after Mr. Dumas's lawyer scathingly attacked the prosecution's case, saying it was built on distortions. Speaking for two...

March 22, 2001, Thursday

A former oil executive who is expected to be a crucial defendant in a multimillion-dollar corruption case made a brief appearance in court today as France's justice minister urged him to tell all he knows about high-level bribery and fraud. The...

The multimillion-dollar corruption trial of a former French foreign minister was postponed again today to await the extradition of a fugitive oil executive involved in the case, a man who once bragged he knew enough secrets ''to bring down the...